Think nitrates in your food and eating healthy don’t go together? What’s this gorgeous spinach salad have to do with nitrates? Read on, but let’s start at the beginning.

You’re not going vegan but you want to eat better and you’ll start with baby steps, like I talked about in my previous post. OK, and here are some popular intentions:

Try and eat more leafy green stuff.

Definitely cut the hot dogs, ham, bacon, the
deli stuff, and “processed” meat, even if it’s lean. Everyone knows that stuff is “bad” because it
has nitrates, right?

Swapping out hot dogs and ham for spinach and beets (the new
“in” veggie for 2019, as I mentioned here)
would at least cut back on the nitrates, right?
Wrong.

Where the Real
Nitrates Are

Indeed, a bunch of healthy, nutrient-rich veggies like beets, spinach, celery, even iceberg lettuce and broccoli, have more nitrates than that hot dog you snuck in for lunch last week. Check out this chart from a 2012 report of the nitrate content in foods. Amounts are in “parts per million” (ppm):

More nitrates than a hot dog — & it’s healthy food!

Beets: 2797 ppm

Spinach: 2333 ppm

Celery: 1496

Mushrooms: 590 ppm

Broccoli: 394 ppm

Strawberries: 173 ppm

Cured sausage (hot dog), cooked: 32 ppm

Are Nitrates in
Fruits and Veggies a Problem?

No, and not in other foods either, according to Melissa
Joy Dobbins MS, RDN, CDE and known as The Guilt-Free® RD. “This
is a great example of how misinformation can create a “fear factor” when it
comes to food. I think most people who are concerned about nitrates/nitrites
would be surprised to learn that the majority of these nutrients in our diet
are not from cured meats, but from plant foods, namely a variety of
vegetables.”

Dobbins’ statement is evidence-based and reflects the
conclusion of this 2015 meta-analysis
of many studies on dietary nitrates, nitrites, and nitrosamines, which found
nitrates associated with a decreased risk of gastric cancer. The slight increased risk associated with
increased nitrite intake was considered weak, and tended to come from weak or
poorly-designed studies, which muddied their findings. Even then, spinach still has more nitrites
than cured sausage.

Nitrates & Their
Cousins: Nitrites and Nitrosamines

Here are the basics you need to know about these:

Nitrates are naturally present in lots
of different foods.

Nitrites are also naturally present
in foods but most are formed when bacteria in your saliva convert nitrates to
nitrites.

Nitrosamines are not naturally
present in food but can form in food through several pathways. Cooking at a high temperature, such as frying
cured meat, or when an acid (like stomach acid) is present. If there’s any concern, it’s with the formation
of nitrosamines. Even then, conversion
from nitrite to nitrosamine can be inhibited or stopped by the addition of
compounds like ascorbic acid, or “vitamin C”.
Seriously – check the ingredient label of many cured foods like hot dogs
and you’ll find “ascorbic acid” is often present.

“Nitrate-Free” Cured
Meat?

There are cured meats labeled “no added nitrates.” What they add instead is celery powder. As you’ll see from the table above, celery is
loaded with natural nitrate. There’s no
evidence that there’s any difference between the nitrate in celery powder and
the nitrate added to “nitrated” cured meat.

Celery: Fine wherever you find it

Nitrates: The
Boil-Down

It’s ironic to know that someone eating a spinach salad is
probably getting 10 times more nitrates than the person eating the ham
sandwich, but Dobbins noted, “Does that mean we should be afraid of eating
vegetables? No. It means we should look at the overall nutrients a food
provides and try to consume more nutrient-rich foods and fewer empty-calorie
foods.”

It may be that the folks who eat lots of cured meat may also
have a less-healthy lifestyle overall.
They may be less likely to engage in regular physical activity, and less
likely to eat a lot of veggies and fruits, and may drink more soda or eat more
junk snacks.

Cut-To-The-Chase-Advice

Eat all the spinach, beets, mushrooms, celery and broccoli
you can fit into your diet. As for cured
meat, I like Dobbins’ approach. Nitrates may not be an issue but balance still
is, so don’t go crazy at a cold-cut buffet.
If you like cured meats, make them leaner cuts, like ham, instead of
sausage. And have that ham with lots of
veggies – even high-nitrate ones like spinach and broccoli. A meal loaded with nitrates can, and should, still
be healthy.
0000000000000

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Comment

Name *

Email *

Website

Dr. Keith Ayoob

Keith is an Associate Clinical Professor at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City where he has maintained a clinical practice for over 30 years, specializing in obesity, child nutrition, and family dynamics. Much of his work also focuses on motivational counseling.